Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners (Dark Angel, Fox, etc.) The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Thanks to all of you who reviewed last chapter, and thanks to Jenna, who helped once again as the beta for the story.
Back on the story, we left Alec and CeCe leaving for San Francisco and May and Max in the beginning of a not so civil conversation, all of that during a normal Saturday morning…
Chapter 13
Faux Mouvement
"Can I ask you a question?" the blond girl sitting by his side asked quietly. The raised eyebrow he offered was enough of a response for her to take a deep breath and continue.
"I read the reports about you and 452. I know it's none of my business but I don't understand why…"
Well, he had to give her credit for waiting as long as she had. But even if she'd waited longer than he'd expected her to, even if he'd known it was coming, he had hoped it wouldn't be so soon. Wishful thinking on his part, and this time his wish hadn't been granted.
Realistically, he'd known this was coming, ever since he'd accepted that his dreams were memories. He'd known that sooner or later his past and his present would collide, and that he'd be stuck dealing with the consequences.
Sparing a glance to his side he realized that she hadn't finished the question, the words were left unspoken, though both of them knew exactly what she was trying to say. Alec knew that delaying the inevitable wasn't going to work, it'd have to be done sooner or later and it might be better for him to start now, "Why do I let her treat me like that? Like a screw up, useless in every sense of the word?"
CeCe blushed slightly as he voiced her question with a rather colorful description, and to think she'd been worried about phrasing the question delicately. She seemed to have forgotten who the man sitting next to her was. Alec had never fooled around the bush before, and apparently he wasn't about to start now; regardless of whether the subject was his preference or not, when something needed to be said he always dealt with it.
His eyes were locked on the clouds as his left hand rubbed the back of his neck absently; his fingers searching for something that used to be but was no longer there. The momentary distraction gave him the seconds he needed to organize his thoughts. He wasn't perfect; he'd learned and accepted that truth a long time ago. He could make mistakes and wrong decisions just like anyone else; though he liked to believe that he learned from those instances and accepted the experience he gained from them. He had never been ashamed of any of his choices, or by any of his mistakes, until now.
Getting his memories back had also given him back the missing parts of himself, the values that had guided him, the honor that made him different from the rest, and every memory that resurfaced only reinforced those beliefs. The man who'd lived in Seattle all this time was him but at the same time not; Alec McDowell was a side of him, a side of him that had different values, different needs, different thoughts. In a way, McDowell was a complete stranger.
Maybe that was the reason he felt distressed by it. Now, with a larger part of his memory back he felt something he never felt before, he felt ashamed of himself. He would have never thought that he could be capable of the things that McDowell had done; the notion that he had crossed a line without even realizing it left him feeling unnerved and off balance. There could be a hundred of reasons to justify his behavior but they wouldn't change the fact the time had come to accept the responsibility for his actions.
"A couple of weeks after Manticore burned down the NSA caught me and planted a bomb at the base of my skull. I made a deal, I'd kill three transgenics in 24 hours and they'd disarm the bomb. They demanded proof of purchase, I had to bring them the barcodes. . .
I killed one, it didn't look human and it wasn't that hard. Then I found a kid, he was barely a teenager, I knocked him out and cut his barcode off. I couldn't kill him but it didn't stop me from using his trust to hurt him. I was running out of time and I still needed one more, when I ran into Max. She was looking for Joshua, a low level canine transgenic friend of hers, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to solve my problem. That's when I found out that Josh doesn't have a barcode. I was gonna kill Max. . . But I couldn't.
She saved my life when she didn't have to. I'd tried to kill her and she still chose to save me. And it cost her her long term happiness. I chose not to kill her but it was her choice to save me, I own her." He paused to take a breath, tried to collect his jumbled thoughts.
"We're not friends, we never will be. But she has her reasons for disliking me with the intensity that she does, so I let her do it. Call it penance if you want."
"We've all done things that we regret. You won't be able to move forward unless you let it go. You didn't kill the boy and you didn't kill Max. You said those were your choices too and you chose not to do it." CeCe observed.
Four days ago he hadn't wanted to move forward without having given Max everything she'd given up when she'd saved him. He'd felt the need to settle his debts before leaving the city to find whatever it was that was missing in his life.
Now, barely four days later, and everything's changed. Things had finally started to make sense, though it was hard to be happy about finding out that he'd lost two years of his life living an imitation life that wasn't his own. Nothing had been real, not even him. He was thinking about everything that had happened in the last couple days when he realized that he'd been missing the obvious, Max's cure was already in his hands.
CeCe watched as Alec went silent, lost in thought. It was hard to imagine Alec doing what he said he'd done; it was probably even harder for him to acknowledge it, the behavior he was describing was completely contrary to his own values.
"Is May still around?" his question caused her raise a curious eyebrow.
"Yes Sir. She and Neil are still in Seattle." She answered carefully as their plane started to descend.
"If it doesn't conflict with her current assignment, I want her to analyze a virus. She'll need blood samples from 452 and Cale. Max has a virus targeted to Cale's DNA. I'm sure May won't have much trouble with it." His voice had adopted his old Commander's tone and CeCe couldn't help but smile as Alec slowly started to resemble his old self.
May probably wouldn't be as excited by the progress once she heard the specifics of the request. The blonde's smile turned into a full grin as she punched in May's number.
Alec's Apartment
Saturday, 09:25 am
It had been stupidly irrational. She never allowed herself to be that kind of person, the kind whose feelings dictated their actions.
A mocking voice in her head whispered in sweet voice that she obviously didn't know herself that well.
All of them had learned from the very beginning the importance of balance, the significance of having control over their emotions and never allowing them to influence decisions. Until now, her life had been ruled by logic, dictated by facts; she'd never wasted her time with nonsensical emotion or foolish sentimentality. Emotions were unpredictable, uncontrollable and, in most cases, triggered reckless behavior in all the involved parties. Common sense was lost, logic was forgotten and balance unreachable.
And she had been right! Her current situation was a perfect example of it.
This was the second time in less than two days that she'd acted on instinct instead of logic. This whole situation could have been avoided if she'd just acted as she usually did. She could have followed them and retrieved the pictures without blowing her cover, if only she would have controlled herself. . .
'What's wrong with me?' Her green eyes glared at the other two occupants of the room; her cold stare never reflecting the inner battle of her mind.
There was no logic to her actions, and if there ever had been, it had evaporated the moment she let the words slip between her lips.
She just couldn't understand her actions, at least not from a rational point of view. Watching the pair as they went through Alec's belongings made her feel violated, offended and furious at the casual disregard of their actions. A part of her recognized the hypocrisy of her behavior; after all, how many times has she done exactly the same thing? How many lives had she analyzed under a magnifying glass looking for answers? How many deep, dark secrets had she uncovered for a mission?
Too many.
Until today, May had never given it a second thought, at the time they had simply been tasks necessary to complete profiles or missions; it was simply a part of the job.
It was quite a different feeling when you were on the other side of the fence. Maybe a better way to describe what she felt was as something closer to a primal instinct that demanded that she protect her own, defend their secrets, their lives. She couldn't stand there watching in silence as 452 searched every inch of Alec's apartment looking for evidence of his supposed guilt.
It had been stupid. So stupid. She could come up with other synonyms, but the word 'stupid' summed things up perfectly well all by itself.
Finn was going to kill her.
May's hold on the gun tightened, the Beretta's steel barrel pressing forcefully against Logan's back. What she'd done couldn't be changed, and now there was no turning back.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Max's gaze was captivated by the pictures; the younger version of Alec was staring somewhere past the camera, the hazel of his eyes looked more intense and she could see that despite the disinterest of his posture something had his full attention as his brows were slightly furrowed. A couple of sandy blond locks fell on his face and gave the teenager a childish appearance, an interesting contrast between the younger look and the seriousness of his expression.
'God he looks so young'.
There was no trace of the ever present grin she was used to seeing on his lips. The cold detachment in his eyes showed no trace of the mischief that sparkled in them every time he spoke. The only thing that Alec and the kid in the pictures had in common was the physical resemblance, besides that it was like looking at a completely different person. A constant presence in all the pictures, a teenage girl who stood close by and was either looking after him or being looked at.
Not for the first time that week Max realized that after almost a year of knowing him, she barely knew anything about Alec.
"That was a very stupid move, or is clumsiness part of your charming personality?" The sarcastic tone of May's voice broke the spell created by the discovery.
Max's predictable reaction was to attack first and ask questions later. She sent a swift kick toward the redhead's face but made contact with Logan's arm as May used him as a shield. The hacker groaned in pain at the power of the kick, even as the brunette's eyes widened in shock.
"My, my…it's a known fact that domestic violence is a killer in any relationship." Snickered May as she kept the gun against Logan's back, maneuvering them both to the side so that she avoided the punch that hit him square in the jaw.
Max winced as she realized that as long as the redhead kept Logan between them she wouldn't be able to land a hit. Frustrated, she took a step back, "What the hell is your problem?"
"Isn't that obvious 452? Right now, my problem is you." May used the distraction of the X5's outburst to slip a thin silver chain around Logan's wrist before locking it to the bed post; the action went unnoticed by the hacker who remained stunned and rooted to the floor. Using his shoulders as support she vaulted over him and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that forced Max back against the wall. May took some measure of satisfaction watching as Max struggled to land a hit against an opponent who outclassed her in every way. May easily avoided and blocked all of her punches, and Max was clearly getting frustrated.
"This is boring 452, is that all you've got?" May teased, darting forward to put an end to the game.
Max felt her left arm being pulled forward, followed closely by a sickening 'crack' and sharp pain. Something squeezed the pressure point at the base of her neck, her vision darkened as her body crumbled on the floor.
"I guess that's a yes." The redhead looked down with distaste at the fallen girl. Her disdain towards the brunette wasn't anything against the X5's, she'd worked with some of the ones that had ended up in Prometheus after Manticore's dismantling; it wasn't even against the Niners, she actually kind of liked the crazy blond who lives with Seth; no, it had nothing to do with the fact that 452 was an X5 or a Niner, it was simply Max's attitude towards life and people.
"Max!" Logan's desperate cry cut through the air as he tried to rush to her side, his movements abruptly cut short by the sudden pressure on his wrist and an intense pain. Noticing the chain for the first time, he looked down and saw the thin red line circling the tender flesh of his wrist.
"Stop moving around and the blades will retract. Relax Cale, I only knocked your girlfriend out, she'll be back to her usual charming self in a few hours." Green eyes fixed on the hacker, studying the self proclaimed defender of Seattle. An ordinary man doing an extraordinary job, May wondered how the rich boy had ended up as the last free voice of the city, undoubtedly through some sort of epiphany.
Logan was still trying to process everything that had happened during the last five minutes. Who was the new girl? Why she attacked Max and him? How was she able to overpower an X5? And where the hell was Alec?
His attacker had told him not to move and he soon realized she hadn't been lying, when he'd stopped fussing the blades had retracted but the harm was already done. Curiosity got the best of him and he couldn't stop himself from taking the chain between his fingers.
A yelp of pain made her look in his direction as he tried with no success to hide his bloody fingers. "Curiosity killed the cat, ever heard that?" she asked teasingly as she retrieved a bottle of vodka and a couple of napkins.
"Logic, you should use it. If the blades cut your wrist what made you think that your fingers would be any different?" May continued as she poured some of the alcohol on the white papers and pressed them against his fingers.
He didn't understand why she was talking to him and treating his cuts after knocking Max out. It was as if she were a different person. Sighing tiredly he finally asked. "What do you want?"
She didn't reply, just turned around muttering something he couldn't understand.
When she heard the question May couldn't help but mutter, 'Not to be asked the same question twice'. Apparently these people didn't understand statistics; if she hadn't answered them before, it was unlikely that she would if they posed the same question again. In fact, what made him think that he would be conscious long enough to keep asking irritating questions…
Moving slowly until she was in front of him, she looked into his eyes and found surprise and distrust swirling in their depths. It didn't last long, as her fingers pressed against the base of his neck; his body slumped forward with her now supporting his weight, her fingers deftly unlatching the lock on the chain. Once he was free, she dropped the hacker's dead weight, letting Cale fall to the floor in an undignified heap.
Emerald eyes once again surveyed her surroundings; the fallen box with the scattered pictures caught her attention. A thin smile formed on her lips as Prometheus' child prodigy stared back at her, the focused expression on his face, the almost unnoticeable twitch of his brows and the glimmer in his eyes; all were clear signs that when the picture was taken Alec was pissed off at something or, more likely, at someone. The gleaming cobalt blue eyes of his SIC made it obvious to anyone who had spent a week in their company that the girl standing four feet behind him was the one to blame.
Glancing at the background of the photo May guessed that it had probably been taken during the Tbilisi Agenda; besides, Neil had mentioned Alec's visit to the Embassy and his meeting with the former defense minister. As she placed the pictures back inside the beautifully carved box, May felt slightly guilty, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was invading her CO's privacy by seeing the pictures. . . and at the same time she couldn't help herself, in the pictures was a side of Alec that she had rarely, if ever, seen before. Reaching the end of the pile she saw that the last shot was different; the teenager from the picture looked disheveled, the rigid control he had exuded in the earlier pictures was missing and in its place was the image of despair, frustration and something she had never seen in his eyes, there was the smallest glimmer of fear.
It was the final picture that made her realize that life inside Prometheus will be hell on Earth until they find Nicole.
Sighing, May decided that it would be necessary to address one problem at the time. First, she needed to call Housekeeping, after which she had to inform Finn about her Condition Black status and wait for new orders. The last thing on the list was to call Neil and basically tell him the same thing.
She had the phone in her hand when it started ringing; the code on the display told her that it was CeCe, and May felt a shiver run down her spine as she answered, "Is everything ok?"
CeCe's voice sounded playfully at the other end. "Of course. Relax, things are fine."
"Then why are you calling? You don't even like phones, what could possibly have happened to have you calling me if everything is fine?" She didn't have time for her friend's games.
"Is everything okay on your end? You sound anxious." CeCe's nature to analyze others had always served her well, but it had no sense of timing some days.
May really didn't have time for this. "Get to the point, I don't have all day."
The sigh on the other end of the line was unmistakable, "Alright, alright, if you insist. Alec needs you to get rid of a virus. He says you're gonna need blood samples from 452 and Cale. Short story, Max has a virus targeted to his DNA, Alec wants you to kill it."
May rolled her eyes glancing at the unconscious figures on the floor. Go figure, now she had to spend more time with the lovely 452. "You've got to be kidding."
"This is important to him." CeCe advised.
The redhead studied the ceiling and sighed. "The boss is going to kill me."
"Which one of them? What's going on?"
"I'm C-Black." May relayed, glossing over the details of the situation she had somehow put herself in.
CeCe tried to process the six letters, but it didn't make sense. What could have happened to blow May's cover? "How..."
May interrupted the blonde before she could continue, "Doesn't matter, I'll get it done."
"But…" CeCe huffed a breath in annoyance at the dial tone that indicated that May had hung up on her.
0oo0oo0oo0
Foggle Towers, Logan Cale's Penthouse
Saturday 10:05 am
Neil grinned in satisfaction as the last file was successfully transferred. The amount of information that Logan had gathered on Manticore was quite impressive, though every indication was that the hacker hadn't been aware of what he had had in his hands. The log showed that once he'd gotten them he hadn't even opened most of them.
Neil skimmed through a good number of files and found that the information in them would be quite useful to the Elite; hidden files detailing Alec's programming were encrypted within them and confirmed the information they'd gotten from Fanning's assistant. Hopefully, the kids from the Crystal Tower would be able to find something about Nicole, who until now, no one had been able to find.
The Elite stood up and walked around the apartment, enjoying the feeling of accomplishment from a mission executed perfectly and without a hitch. Now he only had to wait until the original files were permanently deleted, ten more minutes and he would be out of this place and hopefully out of the city.
Once the adrenalin from the mission and his concern over Alec's condition were under control, his initial apprehension about being in close proximity to CeCe reappeared full force. He hadn't seen her yet, which was a good thing. Or maybe not, because now he found himself thinking about the blonde and wondering about the most inane things, if her hair was longer or if she finally got the tan she had been considering the last time they had talked.
At least he knew he was in over his head, and that if he wanted to preserve even some small measure of his pride, he'd better find a good excuse to leave the damn city.
He couldn't remember ever having acted like this before, not even when he was a teenager. The strange new uneasiness he felt around CeCe was something different. He, along with the rest of the Elite boys, had been helpless victims of the hormones that attacked them when they reached the hated teen years; he was also part of the club that cursed those episodes, a club that also included the Elite's CO. Although, he always guessed that Alec's predicament was more related to his SIC's attitude toward them.
The blue eyed brunette had a way of seducing people without realizing she was doing it, he had experienced it first hand and if said brunette hadn't also had the knack for leaving through windows the episode might have been quite embarrassing for him. Never mind that Alec would've probably skinned him alive for having those kinds of thoughts about her.
At least back then he could blame his irrational behavior on his age, with CeCe he sadly no longer had that excuse. It was time for decisions to be made and he would have to decide if he was going to continue avoiding her like the plague, or if he'd finally grow up and face the fact that he might have a crush on her. Of all the girls he could've fallen for he had to choose the one who loved to analyze people's behavior.
The vibration of his jacket made him stop, May's code was displayed on the screen and he got a bad feeling just looking at the three brightly flashing letters. His better judgment told him not to answer but a nagging doubt forced him to reconsider, what if she was in danger, or hurt, or…
"What's up?" He asked, ignoring his better judgment.
"Condition Black. No casualties, but I need a clean up team." May answered flatly.
Realization hit him hard as he heard her reply, and he cursed himself for having answered the damn phone. He would've sworn that a maniacal voice in the back of his head was laughing at his current predicament. "That's very sad. Why are you telling me?"
A sigh, a pause, another sigh and finally ". . .Protocol, now you have to tell him."
His fist clenched around empty air imagining that it was the redhead's neck. "No way, the mission was simple, I don't know how you managed to blow your cover, but I'm not cleaning up your mess for you May."
A groan, a sigh… "I'm not the one asking you to do it. I was going to make the call, but I just got a call from CeCe and now I need more time. Both of us know that if I call I'll be recalled immediately, but if you call it'll buy me a couple of hours."
Neil groaned in annoyance. "You – owe– me."
"Just make the call."
But he had no intention of making it that easy for her, "No. I'm going with you. I'll make the call but I'm also staying with you from here out."
She hadn't been counting on that, she didn't need a baby sitter. Yes, she'd screwed up, but she wasn't stupid enough let it happen again. "That's not necessary--"
"You don't have a choice. Take it, or make the call yourself. It's up to you."
The words had a freezing effect on her, cold and straight to the point they left no room for argument, he was really pissed. "Fine, see you in ten."
Neil snapped the phone shut harshly, 'Traitor' he muttered as he dropped back into his pocket. Having to deal with an irrational female who, on the top of everything else, has anger issues was not something he was looking forward to. May's behavior had become increasingly erratic, it was something he'd never seen before and that worried him to no end. He wasn't interested in tempting fate anymore than they already had, and preventing a larger disaster became his new self-appointed task.
Neil grabbed his phone again as he took a deep breath, he entered the long, complicated code on the cell phone and waited a few seconds until the connection was established.
"Circe's Condition Black. No casualties reported, additional time required for completion of off profile task." He waited in silence as the person on the other end of the line sighed tiredly.
"She asked you to make the call." It wasn't a question, merely an observation.
Neil cringed, and hoped the short pause went unnoticed; he had learned years ago that lying to the any of the D1's was useless. "Yes sir."
"She has six hours. The plane will be on location." Finn's voice was cold and laced the words like arsenic.
"Understood, sir." Neil closed the phone the moment he heard the dead tone of the line that let him know that Finn had disconnected. Finn was furious, utterly and dangerously enraged. May had better have a good explanation for her actions, otherwise the consequences wouldn't be pretty. . .
Oo0o0oO
The fog covered the city further concealing the barely illuminated figures on the top of the building. One of them stood close to the wall watching the scene taking place fifty floors below in silence, the other was crouched millimeters away from the edge alternating her vigil between the people in the building in front of them and the guy standing meters away from her.
Arching her back gracefully she leapt from her position by the ledge and glided towards her silent partner. The strong wind on the rooftop played idly with the brown locks of her hair creating a halo around her face.
"Can you feel it?" her voice was nothing more than a whisper as she rested her weight against the wall next to him, close but not really touching him.
A nod was the only response, the only indication she had that he was even aware of her presence. His eyes were still glued to the scene taking place in the building in front of them; years of training told him that he was missing something.
"It doesn't feel right." He muttered quietly.
What had been classified as a simple mission didn't seem quite so simple anymore. He had been on his way back from a mission in Azerbaijan when Finn's weekly report, including the details of a Class D mission being scheduled and profiled, had caught his interest. Nicole had been tying up some loose ends in Canada and was also on her way back. His decision at the time had been easy, taking part of in a simple retrieval mission was usually a relaxing activity, at least for them.
The mission turned out to be exactly the opposite; there was something that didn't fit, though up until that moment everything had matched the profile perfectly. Maybe that was part of the problem, maybe it was too perfect and precise. Things were never that accurate, not in real world operations, anyway.
"What about the Intel?" she asked, her eyes following the guards making their fourth round.
"I had it verified three times." He replied turning his head slightly to be able to watch her. He suppressed the smirk forming on his lips as her eyes widened in surprise at finding his face so close to hers, his expression changed once the liquidized blue of her gaze was fixed on him. Those eyes were going to be the end of him.
"So we're just being paranoid because the mission is too perfect?" this time it was her turn to smirk at his lost expression.
His brow furrowed as he turned his face away from her and those distracting eyes. Hazel eyes focused once again on the target as he voiced his concerns. "Probably, but there's something else."
"We've checked the blue prints, the guards' schedules and the profile of the mission. Nothing was left out." Nicole was trying hard to keep the impatience out of her voice.
"Fine. Let's do it." Regardless that it was him who made the announcement, he didn't move an inch.
"I can request a full background analysis of the company and the details behind why The Agency requested Prometheus' help for an assignment that even a common thief could have handled." Her offer was tempting, but he got the feeling that it wouldn't matter how long they waited.
He let out an irritated sigh; there was something about this mission that reminded him of an incident from a couple of months ago. There was some vital information that he was missing, information that not even his Analyst Team had found.
"The Committee approved it. Though I'm pretty sure that they're not aware of our involvement, one of the SO teams stationed in Dallas was supposed to get it." Alec knew that both of them were going to have one of those conversations with Artemis and Maximus about protocol and rules once they go back, still at the time it had seemed like a good idea.
Nicole watched his posture, his body was there but his mind was miles away.They were going to get the mother of all lectures for this 'reckless behavior' when thy got back. "Besides Finn, does anyone else know where we are?"
The tone of her voice had been a mix between mockery and seriousness and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at her delighted expression. His SIC had a tendency of bending the rules, never quite breaking them but refusing to follow them completely. He knew that she was going to take this, the one time that he'd bent the rules, and somehow use it to her advantage in the future.
The smirk on her face forced him to finally answer her, "Probably Biggs, but it was Finn's call. I didn't request any specific protocol to handle the Intel."
This time her lips curved into a full grin, "Well, it's been a while since we've done something so reckless together, sir."
He'd seen it coming; in fact, he was surprised that she hadn't made that comment earlier. The truth was that it was him who hadn't done something so reckless in a long time. The irony of the situation didn't go unnoticed; a year ago they'd had the worst fight of all time over a reckless behavior situation. That had been when everything changed between them.
"Yeah I know" his fingers rubbed the bridge of his nose when he realized something else…"hey it's been a while since you called me that." He smirked as he made his observation.
Her eyes looked concernedly at him, "It has negative effects on your health."
"Oh really?" He raised an eyebrow.
"It makes your ego swell. As your second in command I have to look out for your best interests. An aneurism would not be good for you…sir."
The hurt look on his face only made her smile wider. "I'm promoting Finn once we're back." He replied in flatly.
She laughed at his offended expression and he finally offered a small smile in return. "Shall we go then?"
"Yes, I'll feel better once this is over." He sighed tiredly.
The two figures dressed in black stood closer to the edge and watched the empty street, up in the sky the dark clouds kept the moon hidden from view. Her hand took his as she pulled him down; he could feel the cold air on his face as they gained speed, the way the lights seemed to blur and then everything came to a halt as their fall was stopped centimeters away from making impact against the paved street.
San Francisco
Saturday, 10:20 am
Alec and CeCe stood on the rooftop of a building in the southern Financial District of San Francisco; Alec's eyes were locked on the headquarters of the large security agency in front of them. Small pieces of the past filtered through his brain, the warmth of the evening breeze, the way the moonlight had illuminated her face, his own reservations about the mission. He'd known something wasn't right.
"We thought both of you were on your way back to 7th." CeCe spoke softly.
Alec kept his eyes on the building; he'd known something was wrong before they entered. "It was my idea. I wanted to do something different. It was my own reckless behavior that got us into trouble. I should have known better."
Worried blue eyes watched him carefully; the place was obviously bringing back forgotten memories. "The mission was scheduled for an SO team; there was no indication of anything out of the ordinary."
"Let's get a closer look." Alec replied walking back to the staircase.
His eyes scanned the roof and suddenly he was looking at her, dark clothes and blue eyes fixed on him as her lips swept up in a playful smile. The temperature dropped and the wind got stronger, he watched her lips moving but was unable to hear what she was telling him. A hand on his shoulder made him look to the side for a second and by the time he looked back she was gone.
"Are you cold?" Asked CeCe concerned and moved her hand from his shoulder to his face. Alec's skin felt extremely cold to the touch. "God, you're freezing. Let's go."
Alec took a deep breath and shook away the images. He needed to take one step at a time, finding her was his first priority but he couldn't risk losing his grip on reality again. He didn't need to be an expert to know that hallucinations were unhealthy.
"Yeah, the wind suddenly became stronger; the city's obviously earned its nickname." He commented and finally advanced to the stairs.
His fingers fly over the keyboard as he disables the security systems, dancing around traps and breaking through firewalls, making sure to leave no trace of his presence behind. He's granted access to copy any file he wants a mere 38 seconds after he'd placed himself in front of the keyboard. His lips quirk up into a smirk as he watches the progress on the screen. Lifting his gaze he finds Nicole crouching on one of the desks, her Beretta held over her left shoulder as her eyes stared intently at the shadows.
Even if it was a simple mission both of them had been trained to look for the smallest details, nothing was left to fate, there were no lucky coincidences as far as they were concerned, and neither were there unlucky ones. They had been trained to be the best, and that was exactly what they were.
"It's almost done." He comments, watching the increasing numbers on the screen.
"Good, this place is getting on my nerves." Her voice is low but he knows her well enough to detect the uneasiness in it.
He knows exactly what she means, though it isn't the place itself so much as it was the atmosphere surrounding them. There was something in the air that felt strange, an unsettled feeling that they had missed something of great importance.
The screen flashes as he disconnects the card from the port. Their job was done.
"Done. Let's get out of here." His voice betrays him and his eagerness to be miles away from the building is clear.
She nods and jumps away from her perched position over the furniture, her steps inaudible as she moves to the door and verifies their exit route. After visual confirmation she gives him the all clear signal and both of them move silently along the shadowed corridor.
Alec walked inside of the building holding CeCe's hand as they pretended to be a couple. His eyes scanned the faces to see if he recognized someone as they talked to one of the salesmen about the benefit of their systems and services.
He was watching the monitor when his eyes finally spotted something familiar. The bald man in his forties walking into the elevator, Alec had seen him before; he'd been there that night. The elevator stopped on the floors 5, 14 and 30, three options and one man.
Ten minutes later they were out of the building and inside a small café a couple of blocks away. Alec knew most of the employees would be leaving for lunch in half an hour. He also knew directors usually spent that time inside the building.
Thirty minutes and he'd be one step closer to the truth.
o0o0o0oo0o0o
Seattle's outskirts
Saturday, 10:30 am
Neil was ready to kill someone, preferably a greeneyed, redheaded member of a special unit. When May called in C-Black he hadn't been expecting to find two unconscious bodies lying on the floor of Alec's apartment.
He relayed Finn's orders, emphasized that she'd gotten six hours and that was it; a race against time.
In response, the head of the 6th Section had demanded his help in finding a secluded place for her work and promptly left in search of all the things she would need to solve 'the virus issue,' as she had referred to it. Finding a location wasn't hard; Anna found him one in less than a minute. His frustration was based solely on the fact that May had left him to figure out how to move the two unconscious bodies from the floor of the apartment to the transport and then to the specified location.
It took five minutes to coordinate the extraction; but he spent ten waiting for the transport to arrive, fifteen more until they could safely transfer the bodies from the ambulance to his car – because no matter what the crazed redhead thought, maneuvering two unconscious bodies down a staircase did draw unwanted attention – and another twelve to reach their destination.
And for what? Did she at least say 'thanks Neil you're the best?' Nope. May had screamed at him first in what sounded like Korean, then in English, and finally in French. He tuned her out when he caught the words 'lost hour', 'deadline' and 'virus'. There was no reward for true friends, or maybe he just needed to find new friends, preferably ones who weren't psychopaths.
At that moment he'd been very close to committing murder, but that had been three hours ago, and now his rage had given way to endless boredom. There was nothing to do in this place, he couldn't bug May if he wanted to protect his cover since the scientist and her subjects were currently sharing the same space in the room next door.
May had thrust the wooden box into his hands as the only explanation for her actions. He'd needed to open the box and examine its content to fully grasp the meaning of her words. The shots were too personal, pictures taken when the subjects were clearly unaware of the camera and the raw emotions were clear in their eyes. Not for the first time Neil got the feeling that life inside Prometheus would not be back to normal until they found Nicole.
He could hear May through the wall separating them as she made notes and took samples. He had to admit that the girl was working at an amazing speed as she checked and double checked the test results. Her unsuspecting subjects were still dead to the world or to their current predicament. Everything seemed to be back on track. The sudden commotion next door told him that he'd spoken too soon.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Max opened her eyes slowly, the first thing she realized was that her arms and legs were restrained, raising her head she found the redhead from before standing in front of a microscope, on the table in front of her several instruments were laid out, some of the machines humming quietly to themselves as the woman, who was now wearing a lab coat, took notes and checked something on the laptop next to her.
"What do you want from us?" she asked, her voice hoarse and feeling lightheaded.
May didn't turn but replied absently, "Oh, you're awake. Took you longer than I'd expected."
The brunette grunted in reply, "Sorry to disappoint you, I'm usually better when people don't give me a concussion."
This time the redhead turned around and raised an eyebrow. "I didn't hit you, I placed the right amount of pressure on a pressure point."
"Couldn't tell the difference." Max snapped back.
A snicker was heard as May replied, "Actually it's quite easy, you don't have a swollen bruise on your head."
"Cut the crap, what do you want from us?"
"Relax Max. What's with all the hostility? That can't be healthy." May dismissed her, returning her eyes to the screen.
Max felt her temper begin to flare. "So in your book, knocking a person out twice isn't hostile. Where'd you learn that? Manticore?"
May spared an annoyed glance at the brunette. "You really hate it, don't you?" she asked ignoring the question.
"What the hell are you talking about now?" Max didn't try to hide her frustration.
"Manticore, you hate it. But it's not really the place or even what it represented, right? You blame them for everything that's happened to you."
"You don't know anything about me." Max snapped and watched as the redhead walked around her, analyzed her.
"Half true. I know some things about you, and I don't care enough about you to find out the rest. However, there's something that's abundantly clear. Actually, I'm rather curious, how do you do it?" Green eyes watched curiously.
"Do what?"
"Hate being an X5, you hate being different than the ordinaries. But at the same time you don't hesitate to use your abilities for your own good. It must be a difficult task…" the comment would have been empathic if the tone used to deliver it hadn't been so sarcastic.
Max glared at the redhead, a deep rage in her brown eyes. "Go to hell."
"My, my and there we go with the hostility again. And we were having such a nice chat. . ." May knew that her condescending tone was driving the X5 nuts; after all, she usually ended up ready to kill Nicole whenever the technique had been used against her.
Max wasn't sure what the woman was trying to accomplish, besides annoying her. "What do you want from me?"
May didn't bother turning around as she waited for the computer to verify her results. "Despite what you may believe, the world doesn't revolve around you 452, but if you're so interested I'm here to solve your virus problem. Why? Did you have any other request, something else that you want me to look at while I check the results? Are there any other disease you want to get rid of?"
"What the hell are you talking about? How do you know about the virus?" Max didn't know how this stranger could know anything about the virus that had been causing her so much grief lately. It didn't make sense unless, the good doctor had taken a blood sample; as she looked down, Max discovered the fading needle marks tracing her arms.
May's voice brought her back, "Does it really matter? I'm going to fix it, why do you care how I know or why I'm doing it."
"I don't believe you." But deep inside Max wondered if it could be true. It would mean that she and Logan could be finally together. But something else was weighing on her mind, preventing any feelings of excitement at the prospective cure for the virus. Hazel eyes and sandy blond hair materialized in her mind. Alec. Where was Alec?
"Do you honestly think that I want to do this?" May couldn't understand the logic of the girl, wasn't she supposed to be in love with the hacker? Shouldn't she be at least a little bit interested in finding a cure? Maybe CeCe had misunderstood Alec's request, maybe there was someone else in the equation.
"Max?" Logan groaned, waking up to the sound of voices.
"God, Logan…are you all right?" Max asked alarmed, she couldn't see him but his voice sounded close.
Logan blinked a couple of times before replying. "Yes, kind of daze, I guess. Where are we?"
"In Wonderland. I'm the rabbit, let's have some tea." May snarked over her shoulder.
"What?" As the question left his lips he realized the futility of it.
"Oh come on, you woke up tied down in a room you've never been in before, where do you think you are?" May asked.
"Who do you work for?" Logan asked looking around, the warehouse looked deserted.
A sing song voice replied, "No one."
"Who do you work for?" he repeated the question.
This time May used a childish voice to reply. "The man in the big suit."
Max was getting frustrated with the answers. "What kind of freak are you?"
This time May turned around and fixed her emerald green eyes on Max's brown ones. "I'm not a freak, as you so kindly put it. I'm smarter, stronger, and better than you. Now I'm going to ask you again, 'cause I'm almost finished, do you want me to correct anything else in that messed up DNA of yours or not?"
"Max, what is she talking about?" Asked Logan confused about the new turn of the conversation.
"She claims to be working on a cure for the virus." Max replied and May rolled her eyes she'd never said cure, you don't cure a virus, you give a treatment for a virus or have a vaccine, but there's no way that you 'cure' a virus.
"Why?" Logan's question hung in the air for a long moment.
May watched the pair, amused, they were sharing the same room and despite being within hearing distance of one another they still managed to ask the same stupid questions. "Why is the reason so important for you two? I have the key that will solve your problems. Why do you care why am I doing it? She'll be able to touch you without killing you in the process, isn't that more important than knowing the reason?"
"I don't believe you." Max repeated stubbornly.
"Oh my god, I might die from the shock and the heartache of your hurtful words." May rolled her eyes dramatically before she pinned Max with an intense glare. "Why do you want so desperately to be like him? Why are you ashamed of what you are? So you were made in a lab, what's the big deal?"
Max's voice was sarcastic as she replied. "Gee, I don't know, maybe I got tired of the torture and being treated as a replaceable thing."
"Oh…a sad story. . . poor, poor you. How unfair life has been with you. Have you ever thought about the thousands of children who grow up on the streets? To the ones that can't defend themselves and are hurt in every way possible? Stop complaining about your life and face the facts, you're never going to be one of them, no matter how hard you try to deny what you are. You're an X5. Life won't suck so much if you accept the fact that what you are is not something that you can change, it's who you are."
Silence descended on the room as May went back to her vials and Max contemplated the redhead's words. "I'm going to leave the vaccine and you can have it tested or flushed down the toilet. I don't care, it's your choice Max." May had grown tired of repeating the same conversation.
"Where's Alec?" Max asked and found that the question seemed to unnerve the girl.
The cold tone of her voice clearly showed her discomfort with the new topic. "What do you care?"
"He's my friend." Max replied with confidence.
"Ha! That's funny, but you really shouldn't delude yourself with that lie." May replied once again focused on the vials in front of her.
"You don't know anything about him." Max words echoed flatly in the room until May actually laughed at her declaration.
"And you do, right? That's why you were in his apartment, because you know everything about him." May left three vials on the table as she started packing the rest of the equipment.
"I know him." Max replied softly.
May glanced at her over her shoulder. "Who are you trying to convince with that, yourself or me? He's going to be fine, you don't need to worry about him."
"Why are you after him?" Max asked as she noticed that the redhead had almost finished packing.
May turned to face her and kneeled to be at her level. "You ask too many questions, but you're not prepared to face the answers. Let him go. He's not yours, he never was and never will be."
Max avoided the other woman's penetrating gaze and watched as she took several boxes before she walked out of the room. She returned after only a minute to retrieve her laptop.
May picked a pocket knife from her lab coat and placed it three feet away from Max's hands. "You're twenty miles from the city; the closest town is five miles to the west. The three vials on the table are the vaccine for the virus." Without looking back May walked to the door and stopped before opening it. "And Max…it was a pain meeting you."
Logan waited in silence but nothing happened, did she just walk out and leave them there? "Is she gone?"
"I think so; I heard a car drive off." Max replied absently, warily eyeing the three vials on the table, wondering if they would disappear if she blinked. Maybe the woman was right, why does she care about the reasons? If it really worked she could be with the man she loved. Why can't she stop thinking about Alec then? What's wrong with her?
"Max, how are we going to get out of here?" Logan's voice brought her back and she started to drag herself closer to the knife.
Ooo0ooO
Neil had looked at her funny as she walked past him to place the boxes on the floor next to his feet. His unspoken question was answered with an unspoken reply, as she turned around and went back to the room. A quick glance at his watch told him they had an hour to get to the airport, as he picked up the boxes and carried them outside the warehouse he smiled, thinking that an hour to annoy May could be the perfect payback for forcing him to act as her errand boy for the day.
By the time May was finally ready to leave the warehouse he was once again bored out of his mind, so the smirk firmly planted on her face piqued his curiosity.
He started the car and drove toward the highway, "Did the two of you finally make up?"
May didn't turn to face him, keeping her eyes focused on the rearview mirror as the warehouse became smaller. "What, exactly, are you talking about?"
"The psychoanalysis you performed in there? Never knew you had it in you." He baited her.
May rolled her eyes, "I did nothing out of the ordinary, just solved the virus issue."
Neil snorted at her response, "Right and you're usually a bucket of fluffy kittens." A glare and a punch on the forearm were all the reply he got.
"Damn it woman, don't you know it's not safe to attack the driver?" He whined.
"If the driver would focus on driving he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked." She snapped.
Neil chuckled at her offended expression. "And where would the fun in that be?"
"You're being childish."
"And you keep refusing to answer a simple question."
"What do you want to know?"
"What changed in there? You're not usually such a talkative ray of sunshine." He asked more serious and turned slightly to look at her.
May sighed before replying, in truth she wasn't even sure why she'd started talking to Max. "I just wanted to understand why Alec would care about someone like her."
"And?"
"I have no clue; it has to be something that happened between them." She admitted.
Neil rolled his eyes at her expression. "Nothing else? Yesterday you were ready to kill her and today you two had a civil conversation."
"It wasn't civil and I still find her extremely annoying but I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. She has enough issues to deal with and I doubt she'll be ready to face them any time soon. It's amusing to see someone who refuses so strongly to accept her own nature, it's even worst because she's trying to be like them."
"Well, with the virus under control, she might able to."
"I'm not so sure about that. She's so frustrated and tense that I doubt solving this one issue is going to be enough. Besides, she likes our boy."
"Well that could explain the constant fights, which reminds me, she was paired with Alec for Manticore's breeding program. Do you think they might …?
"Nah. I'd bet that she's never even kissed him."
"How could you possibly know that?" he asked raising an eyebrow as the car entered the private airport complex.
May sighed and closed her eyes for a second. "Because when that man kisses you he makes it unforgettable."
"Do I want to know?" Neil asked apprehensively.
May punched him again. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Alec might be our CO but he's always been a man, and a very attractive one at that. It was a mission in Prague, and trust on me there's no female capable of forgetting him, even if he just barely brushed his lips against yours."
"Stop right now. That's not the kind of information I need or want to know. At least you're back to your usual self." Neil groaned at the image of Alec and CeCe kissing during a mission.
"Relax Romeo; I don't think CeCe ever had a mission alone with Alec. So tell me, do you have a plan to woo our Juliet yet?" May asked with a brilliant smile.
"I'm not going to miss you at all." Neil groaned in response as he stopped the car and both of them got out.
The desire to strangle the woman standing in front of him came back full force; nevertheless years of training forced him to restrain himself. Mentally counting the ways to kill a redhead Neil trailed dejectedly behind May.
San Francisco
Tech Corp Building 14th floor, 13:00 pm
Alec and CeCe moved silently on the deserted 14th floor, most of the employees had left the building during their lunch break and the few remaining workers had ended up on the cafeteria of the 5th floor.
He was eager to get out of the building; there was something about the place that made him uneasy. His eyes focus on her raised hand as she stops suddenly and signaled for him to retreat. He turned around but clearly saw among the shadows fifteen armed guards aiming automatic weapons right at him.
They were surrounded, and there seemed to be no way out.
Extreme situations called for extreme measures, it shouldn't have come to this but he wasn't willing to risk both of their lives with more than thirty heavily armed men surrounding them. Alec closed his eyes and focused on the strategy of his attack, visualizing the position of the hostiles before manipulating and releasing the energy around him. This had to be quick and clean.
Just as he was about to release his attack cold fingers pressed against his wrist twice. The action went unnoticed by their captors and he stopped his attack. Her signal had been clear, there was something else going on and it wasn't safe to uncover their true identity. One of the things about the Elite was the fact that there were never witnesses of their real power, no one could really tell what the Elite members were capable of, no one could be sure of what was real and what was part of an ancient myth.
Nicole started walking again; from their position there was no other option. The guards probably hadn't realized that they'd been discovered, but the man watching from the second floor had. He'd been watching her as if he knew that she was looking back at him. He knew they were there and were they'd come from. The question now was how much did the stranger really know about them?
Nicole came to a sudden stop as a gun was pressed against her chest. The lights were turned on and both Elites noted with cold detachment that they'd been right. There were thirty guards surrounding them and two men overlooking all the action from the staircase. Nicole raised her hands in mock surrender, placing herself between them and Alec.
The man from the stairs barked some orders in a language Alec didn't recognize; though it sounded similar to Russian, with some German and Flemish mixed in. The meaning became clear as he felt a pricking sensation at six different parts of his body, the muscles relaxant injected by the darts quickly starting to spread through his bloodstream. A quick glance to his right found the semi-lucid cobalt blue irises looking back at him. The drugs took effect almost instantly and he could feel his legs stop responding to his commands as his body crumbled to the floor.
Nicole distantly felt one of the guards pulling her to a standing position, conscious of her surrounding but unable to make her body respond, it seemed ironic that she had been reduced to nothing more than a rag doll. The sound of fabric being ripped could only mean that they had cut open the back of her shirt.
She could hear the footsteps behind her and shivered as cold fingers touched her skin, looking for something that wasn't there. Seconds later she could hear the same ripping sound, Alec was receiving the same treatment, though the result would be exactly the same.
"They're nothing more than pawns. This has been a waste of my time." The man from the staircase wearing thick framed glasses growled with clear disgust, he spoke with a quiet rage in his tone.
The man had enough knowledge about Prometheus to be considered a problem; However, the thing that bothered both captives was the specific information he seemed to posses about the Elite. That he had been looking for a mark was proof that he knew about the Elite's symbol-based ranking system, although luckily for them, his information was obviously outdated.
The cold, calculating voice spoke again. "Stone, call the Colonel, he can keep this pair, I have no use for them. Call Dominick and tell him he's just made himself responsible for his granddaughter's death."
Alec eyes flashed in recognition, the name couldn't be just a coincidence -- and it would explain the man's knowledge of the Elite. The feeling of betrayal leaves a bitter taste in his mouth; the Elite commanders had fallen into a trap set by their own people. It was at that moment that Alec realized just how far out of control things had gotten.
David Stone felt the cold metal against his forehead and as he raised his head he found a face he thought he'd never see again. Blank hazel eyes stared through him as the gun pressed menacingly against his skin.
"I see you haven't forgotten me."
To be continued…
AN: Comments are always welcome, just take a minute or two and leave a review.